Assyrian Christians dig moat to protect their town from car and suicide bombings
Baghdida- Assyria- Iraq
22-07-2009
Assyrian Christians are digging a moat around one of their biggest towns in northern Iraq to guard it against car and suicide bombings. The moat is the latest anti-terror invention in Iraq. The U.S. occupiers constructed cement walls to separate Baghdad neighborhoods in a bid to quell sectarian violence. The moat will ring the town of al-Hamdaniya (Assyrian Baghdida) a few kilometers east of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
Al-Hamdaniya (Assyrian Baghdida) also known as Qaraqosh, is a predominantly Assyrian Christian town and a haven for hundreds of Assyrian Christian families forced to leave Mosul. It is one of the largest Assyrian Christian towns among the string of Assyrian Christian villages and towns to the east and west of Mosul. It is situated in a fertile plateau and surrounded by Arab villages.
Officials in al-Hamdaniya (Assyrian Baghdida) say they lack the resources to control scores of country roads leading to the town. The town is currently under Kurdish militia control and Iraqi observers say Sunni Arab insurgents will continue targeting it so long as it remains under Kurdish control. The Kurds want to officially add al-Hamdaniya (Assyrian Baghdida) to areas under their hegemony but officials of Nineveh Province of which Mosul is the capital have said they cannot accept Kurdish presence in the town. It is not clear when the moat will be completed and who will be financing the dig.
The majority of Iraq’s Christians, are Assyrians, affiliated with different Churches and since the U.S. led invasion in March 2003, they have been subjected to severe acts of violence and as they form the weakest link in the Iraqi mosaic, they've been continuously ignored and marginalized by the local and foreign authorities which are governing Iraq at present in addition to being obscured by the media.
*Edited for content
Azzaman
